RP athletes left in the cold

BUSAN — After a smooth three-hour, 15-minute flight from Manila to this scenic port city, the first batch of Filipino athletes and officials quickly realized that organizers of the 14th Asian Games set Sept. 29 to Oct. 14 have yet to iron out a lot of preparation kinks.

Without any advice, the Philippine delegation’s billeting at the glistening new athletes Village was transferred from Building 116 to 103, necessitating the drafting of new rooming assignments and, for more than 30 minutes, literally leaving the Filipinos out in the cold.

"The (building) manager explained that 116 was not yet finished so the organizers decided to move us," said Chief of Mission Tomas Carrasco. "That’s okay except that we were not informed (of the transfer) and they did not send us the new building plan to guide us in preparing the room assignments."

Under the previous arrangement finalized during the Chiefs of Mission meeting here last July, the RP contingent was to occupy the whole building (116). Now the Filipinos have to share Building 103 with the Sri Lanka delegation, which was given 22 six-athlete units.

Feeling cold (in the Baguio-like weather) and hungry upon their arrival at the Athletes’ Village at 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. in Manila), the Filipinos suffered a second setback when organizers failed to provide dinner which Philippine Olympic Committee’s Carlos Santos - Viola had arranged with them even before leaving Manila.

"They (organizers) asked me if I want them to prepare a special meal because the dining hall would be fully operational only on Monday (Sept. 23). I told them yes, knowing we’d be flying in at dinnertime. It turns out now there’s no food," Santos-Viola lamented.

Only pizza pie was available for delivery, so the Filipinos had no choice. By the time the pizzas came, it was already 12 midnight.

"Obviously," Carrasco noted, "part of our initial difficulties could be due to communication problems." With this in mind, Carrasco succeeded yesterday in getting an extra man who will work with the RP Secretariat staff and other interpreters already provided by organizers.

Hopefully, there would be no more problems when the full 327-man RP contingent finally settles in at the Village, which will host about 10,000 guests, including 6,714 athletes.

After all, RP team co-administrators Nestor Ilagan and Ramon Suzara, Santos-Viola and billeting official Sean Solis had finalized the new rooming assignments and settles all obligations to ensure a smooth flow of operation in support of the athletes’ bid for gold and glory. The Filipinos are looking to improve on their one-gold finish in the Bangkok Asiad four years ago. Carrasco and other top officials, led by POC president Celso Dayrit and Philippine Sports Commission chair Eric Buhain, believe "winning seven gold medals is achievable."

Their belief is anchored on the presence of topnotch athletes like world billiards champions Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante, four-time World Cup bowling titlist Paeng Nepomuceno and female keg star Liza del Rosario, long distance specialist Eduardo Buenavista and taekwondo Olympians Roberto Cruz, Donald Geisler and Eva Marie Ditan.

Of course, the whole country is also pinning a lot of hopes on the all-pro basketball team led by Fil-Am players Asi Taulava and Eric Menk and homegrown stars Danny Ildefonso and Danny Espino.